McCain goes nuclear on gas prices

At least that’s what his campaign would like voters to believe, as the presumptive Republican nominee crosses the country touting his energy policies in hopes of winning voters anxious about record fuel prices.

Story Continued Below

“We all know that nuclear power isn’t enough and drilling isn’t enough. We need to do all this and more,” said McCain on Tuesday, standing in front of steaming cooling towers at a Michigan nuclear power plant. “Solving our national energy crisis requires an all of the above approach.”

So that is exactly what McCain is delivering this week. Monday featured a stump speech railing against high gas prices at a motorcycle rally in South Dakota, followed by a Midwestern nuclear plant visit Tuesday, then a stop in the coal-producing region of Appalachia later in the evening.

“Is there anyone that’s tired of paying $4 a gallon for gasoline?” he asked a crowd of several thousand bikers on Monday night, shouting over the roar of gunning engines. “Is there anyone that wants to become energy independent?”

See also

There are no quick fixes for high gas prices, of course. But even if McCain can’t give Americans what they really want at the moment — lower gas prices — he can at least express that he feels their pain at the pump.

“We need to drill here and we need to drill now,” said McCain at a meeting with small business owners in Pennsylvania on Monday, a message he would repeat at the bike rally later that evening.

His overarching program calls for increased nuclear power, natural gas, and clean coal technology, as well as proposing a summer gas tax holiday. He shifted to support increased domestic oil exploration in June but maintains his opposition to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. His energy policy plan, named The Lexington Project, aims to achieve energy independence by 2025.

Tuesday found McCain touring the Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant near Detroit, the first such visit by a presidential candidate in recent memory.

McCain wants to build 45 new plants by 2030 — with the ultimate goal of 100 new plants — an ambitious objective considering that a new nuclear plant hasn’t been built in about three decades, according to the Department of Energy.

At the plant, McCain recounted his experience as being stationed on the USS Enterprise, the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.